Export Development Canada has been fostering trade for Canadian businesses since 1944, but when the export credit agency embarked on its own digital transformation journey two years ago, it discovered that an adjustment was needed. Like any business today, EDC had to focus on the customer experience, which had changed significantly through the emergence of new technologies.

“Exporting means merchandising goods for most people, but when you look at the shift in the industry to software and services, these folks are not perceiving themselves as being an exporter,” said Marc-André Sinclair (pictured), director of digital marketing, platform, content strategy and partnerships at EDC. “When you build software and sell it, you don’t think about your software getting beyond the borders.”

Sinclair spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas. They discussed EDC’s digital transformation, delivering a solid customer experience, and the future role of data privacy in enterprise management (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

New products and services

There were plenty of Canadian companies that EDC could help, but the agency found that it was not growing its customer base. EDC migrated operations from an on-premises to cloud architecture, according to Sinclair, with a renewed focus on building new products and services to meet the export needs of its customers.

“It started for us with a strong investment in all of the marketing tech stacks,” Sinclair said. “The approach we took was people, process and technology, but at the middle we really put the customer experience at the forefront of everything.”

Part of today’s customer experience involves data privacy. With the enactment of the General Data Privacy Regulation in Europe and new laws, such as the California Consumer Protection Act scheduled to take effect next year, companies are looking more closely at data protection within the overall customer experience.

EDC sees this as more of an opportunity than a hindrance. “Whether you want it or not, this is just the beginning,” Sinclair said. “You really need to make sure you invest in data privacy management. If it’s well done, your customers will love it.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Adobe Summit 2019. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Adobe Summit 2019. Neither Accenture Interactive, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE